Business Advantage Papua New Guinea
OPPORTUNITIES IN CARBON CAPTURE
Climate expert says PNG has opportunities in the environmental space.
Climate change expert Professor Tim Flannery told the 2018 Business Advantage Papua New Guinea Investment Conference in Brisbane that PNG can develop environmental commerce with its forests, its soil and the marine areas.
‘Sadly, we have come to an agreement very late on climate change,’ said Flannery.
‘We are now in a situation that we have emitted so much greenhouse gas that we will almost certainly cross the threshold that we are trying to avoid. Unless we are going to draw down enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
‘There is a whole new area, which will become increasingly important, which is how do we get some of the gas out of the air?’
Flannery said reforestation is one of the biological pathways for capturing carbon.
‘The opportunities in places like Papua New Guinea, where you have such rapid rates of plant growth, are very large indeed.
‘The soil carbon store is about twice as large globally as the living carbon store in the forests. So the opportunity to increase carbon in the soil—which gives you better productivity, better water retention, and so forth—is again very large.’ Flannery believes that the oceans also have enormous untapped potential.
‘It is one of the areas where Papua New Guinea has tremendous opportunities just by virtue of the coast line, by virtue of the living experience that the local cultures have in managing marine resources, and the enormous productivity of the areas around Papua New Guinea.’
Kelp farming, he said, ‘has enormous potential for sequestration simply because kelp grows so fast.
‘It grows 30 to 60 times faster than land-based plants. If you want to sequester the carbon in that kelp, the oceans a kilometre down are an ideal place to do it.
‘So, if you have productive coastal environments near marine canyons and deep water such as Papua New Guinea has, then the potential for kelp farming is great.’